Saturday, December 12, 2009

Hated

This release, or rather the ROIR cassette version, was my introduction to this shit-stained luminary that should require no introduction. I remember listening to this tape and feeling as if I was really doing something wrong (later Bathory would take that role). I understand that G.G. is a most polarizing entity and I've spent many a drunken night trying to articulate why he was an important figure in rock 'n roll history and why he should be remembered as such. First and foremost, G.G. brought real danger and unpredictability back to rock, he was more manimal than Darby, more venomous than the Pistols, and far more dangerous than N.W.A. He was the closest thing to a De Sade-style libertine the twentieth century would ever see. He was 120 days of Sodom and punk rock. He was outlaw like David Allan Coe, and he was far more frightening to your button-down suburban mom than a whole Senate hearing full of Dee Sniders and Blackie Lawlesses. Of course there were the rape allegations, and his detractors will decry his treatment of women, G.G.'s hatred and rage knew no gender. He turned his every fiber into a weapon, his body, his art, his everything. G.G. vowed to kill himself on stage in 1989, he also promised to take some of the audience with him. Unfortunately, G.G. died less ceremoniously of a heroin overdose in 1993 in a dingy New York City apartment. He was alone. When I heard of his death I was not only saddened, but disappointed that his dream of committing the ultimate transgression, and dying in an orgy of violence (see the end of Passolini's Salo) went unfulfilled, but then I recalled a lyric from his acoustic ballad "When I Die": "When I die you don't have to feel no feelings inside." It's as if in some post-mortem moment of bronevolence (I made that word up) he relieves us of our hackneyed emotions. G.G. is telling us to move on and not worry about him. Of course it is this more sensitive G.G. that appears on his very personal acoustic recordings that most interest me, but Hated In The Nation, as I stated before, was my indoctrination into the cult of G.G. Allin, so it remains another personal favorite, rife with nostalgia and wonder. If you are one of those squeamish candy-assed sugar beets that hated him before, this will do little to change your mind. However, if you are completely unfamiliar with his recorded output, Hated In The Nation is an excellent jumping off point.

another way to look at his death is to see it through the lens of a comment he made on the Geraldo show (I think) about he performances in general: "With GG Allin, you don't get what you want. You get what you deserve".He is a true son of the Granite State (where I too grew up) and we had mutual friends. Met him once, in the 80's. He was a much nicer guy then you'd expect.

i think GG was needed...regardless of political views or criminal behavior, his songs were (from a musical standpoint), well written and catchy...lyrically or production wise probably hit or miss, but that was was the charm of it all...he was what rarely any person, let alone musician is nowadays= honest.

i think the demise of GG Allin was probably that this dude, trying his hardest to be the opposite by wearing his colors on his sleeve, ended up becoming loved...and maybe the OD was life's way of cancelling that out, but i am always curious, when he is mentioned, how he would have handled or even the increased recognition....what if some label threw a bunch of money behind him because they saw "opportunity"...LOL we'll never know heh....

i can honestly say seeing GG Allin as a 17-year-old was one of the scariest moments in my show going history. although knowing he did an enema before the show to ensure he shit on stage is funny and explains why it stunk so damn bad; i can still see the whole show in my head vividly.

I saw him perform in a "no cops are coming" type punk club in a strange industrial part of Dallas Texas. He smashed a guys video camera against a wall and man-handled a chick onstage and the place went nuts. He and his van took off with a flat tire and I watched someone throw a chunk of cinder block threw the drivers side window leaving the drummer behind (he was cool and no harm came to anyone). It felt like we were a part of history as it was happening.

I'll always love this early 80's incarnation of GG the most - the drunken sleazy scumfuc rhyming "dick" with "clit" rather than the somewhat boring militant he eventually became. Not that I necessarily disagreed with or disliked his later rhetoric or music - it was just a little too schtick - sadly I think the image took him over in the end. Give me "I Wanna Fuck Myself" any day!!!

Love this one, but I think Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies is my favorite. Check out Expose Yourself, the Singles Collection to hear some real early tracks. Songs like Devil's Triangle almost sound like 70's AM radio fodder...

This to was my introduction to GG....I still remember being in 9th grade, taking the bus to Perry's Rockpile and my friend getting this cassette. GG rules,my favorite stuff is with the Jabbers. Oh ya my friend saw GG when she was 17(it was an 18 and over show),he got her in on the guest list and she said he didn't try anything shady(he did try to get her to beat up his guitar player). Love him or hate him,GG left his shitstained mark on this world!!!!

My Mum was duped into getting me a GG video one xmas. After i showed her the best parts she just looked a bit upset & said "it's so sad, he's got a mother somewhere"!He really was a stupid, stupid, massive cunt!More here anyway...http://wemarchinline.blogspot.com/2008/11/gg-allin-discography.html

"Don't Talk to Me" is a great early GG song. Toward the end of his career his voice was so fucked he sounded like he was vomiting fire...the songs are pretty uniformly awful.

I hate to oversimplify things, but I think his micropenis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropenis), in addition to being raised in a dirt-walled basement by a cultish bible freak who named him Jesus--totally not acceptable for a non-Mexican--was the "root," pun intended, for his entire career. If the guy had even a four inch pecker, he'd have been a whole lot less angry.

pretty sure this is a little known fact, but before his prison stint in MI, he lived at the oldest venue in the country, the icepick (icepickmuskegon.com)in muskegon, MI that me & a friend are trying to keep open (need to raise at least $15K to get a land contract, or $25K to get it...). GG tried to burn it down once...threatened to rape his drummer (club owner)...and the band he toured with at the time was the disappointments, and they were actually the band that he toured cross country with- his longest tour, yet they're the least known band that backed him. i've got a copy of the 'inside out" 7" that actually plays from the middle out. hard to get it to start at the very beginning though. killer stones cover too!

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